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Speak English or Die
Speak English or Die is the several politically incorrect debut album of Stormtroopers of Death, containing songs in regards to various subjects, which are also very short (over a dozen songs lasting well under 40 minutes total), usually laced with humor, and fast thrash metal for the most part. This was also one of the earlier bands to mix heavy metal with some hardcore crossover elements as well. The album was originally released through Megaforce Records and Caroline Records in 1987. Content The majority of the release’s content is thrash metal, although some pieces are just quick jokes, rather than really being “songs”, such as "Anti-Procrastination Song", being only three seconds long, with just a few guitar notes, the name of the song being yelled out, and a drum roll. "Hey Gordy!" is also only five seconds long, just consisting of the phrase of “hey Gordy, give me a shot!”, followed by some guitar noise, and "The Ballad of Jimi Hendrix" (four seconds in length) just has the first few notes of "Purple Haze", ending with vocalist Billy Milano saying "you're dead". Some are also a mix, like with "What’s That Noise", which was possibly going to be a song of some sort, but after every time the band played a measure, the music would stop and a big noise would permeate through the speakers, leading to vocalist Milano begging the band members to “stop playing the fucking song” and yelling at producer Alex Perialas to “fix the fucking thing!” as this happened repeatedly. There are also actual songs with a sense of humor included, such as "Pre-Menstrual Princess Blues", having nagging, screaming vocals representing the woman in distress along a simple, chromatic guitar riff (which turns to thrash metal during the chorus); "Milk", also being mostly thrash in regards to being out of milk and substituting breakfast cereal for “wheat thins and beer”, and others that even take swipes at their own metal culture, like mentioning Motley Crue in "Fist Banging Mania" and poser bands in "Douche Crew". And some songs are still relevant today even, such as "Fuck the Middle East", in regards to mentioning hijacked planes and all. There are also several non-humorous tunes on here, but they're pretty much in the same vein, being heavy, fast, short, and chromatic in scale, except for the opening instrumental of "March of the S.O.D.". Track list Bonus track listing ;1992 re-issue bonus track ;2000 re-issue bonus studio tracks ;2000 re-issue live bonus tracks recorded in Tokyo, 1999 Comparison with bootlegs from this era showed that the live tracks were recorded live at Club Citta in Kawasaki on 5 June 1999, except for United Forces part I & part II, that were recorded at Club Citta on 7 June 1999. S.O.D. also played on 8 June 1999 at Club Citta, completing a 3-night stint at the legendary venue. Personnel ;S.O.D. *Billy Milano - Vocals *Scott Ian - Guitars, Vocals *Dan Lilker - Bass *Charlie Benante - Drums, Lead guitar on "United Forces" ;Production *Alex Perialas - Producer, Engineering *Scott Ian - Cover art, Producer *Jon Zazula - Executive producer *Jason Rosenfeld - Photography Trivia *The character of "Sargent D", S.O.D.’s symbol, started off as a joke, with caricatures of him by the band members with quotes written below, such as "don’t fuck with me, your enemy, Sargent D". *Due to the "Freddy Krueger" song, promo pictures were taken of the horror movie icon with the band members, making it look like he had cut open Scott Ian’s nickname of “Not” on his chest with his knife glove. *There are several versions of the release, as it originally came out on vinyl and cassette, which had a shorter version of "Diamonds and Rust", where only the word “Diamonds” was said. The extended version would later appear on the cd (including the rest of the “and rust” vocals), along with "Ram It Up" (taken from the From the Megavault compilation album) being added as a bonus track as well. Category:1985 albums